24 Hearts

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To live in this world.

Time passes faster than we think it does. Even if you are conscious of the passage of time, it might feel as if it suddenly starts to walks slowly, almost taking a rest after it had run for minutes, hours, or ages. Yet, time never stops, and soon as you lose interest in it, it jumps and flies away from you as if it has merely been walking to gain momentum. Even if you try so hard to catch time and control it, you can never do so, and none has ever done it.

Such a fact of physics counted for Judah, for me, as well. The winter came as the cold winds of the world blew through the streets of Serenia, and the winter quickly passed. The warm days of spring arrived, and I realized then that it had been four years since I had been thrusted into this reality.

In the mind of a child, four years passed by so swiftly.

I was tall now, and I had gained weight. My body was beginning to show some muscle mass, and I could see so clearly that my transition from a boy into a young man was starting. During that time, I continued to spar with Kain and increased my other skills after showing Kaseun my Shadow Swordsmanship. Unfortunately, there had been no increase in my stats.

The sun dawned over Serenia, and the voices of people in the streets opened my eyes. The yawn that so naturally escaped from my wide mouth soon morphed into a sigh as I deeply exhaled. I was slowly waking up as I continued to lie on my large bed. It wasn’t a very comfortable bed, and that had me sulking.

I slowly stood and made the bed, finally heading to the kitchen. In four years, I had adapted to this house and so expected the creaking sound as my heels hit upon the wooden floor.

“Breakfast,” I mumbled, the sleep not yet having disappeared from my face. I entered the large cupboard and took out some eggs. With a turn of a dial and a click of a mechanism, the stove’s fire was lit. It used no gas to create its fire but rather had a pre-installed circular rune from which the magical energies flowed at a constant yet variable rate to produce the flame.

When I had made the game, I had never included such detailed systems in my world, for no computer or server farm would ever be able to handle that much detail, and no single human able to code it in. Yet, this world was functioning seamlessly, as if some unknown law of reality had generated such systems to make everything fit together.

Fridges, gas stoves, spinning fans, and various other advanced devices that one would expect only on modern Earth existed here, all functioning through the application of magical energies.

Of course, you could only possess such utilities if you had money, but I had a wealthy bank called Kaseun. Thanks to him, I was able to maintain a rich lifestyle. I broke the shell of an egg on the heated frying pan and dropped its contents into the pan. More eggs followed their broken comrade.

All the whites and the yolks settled into a delicious-looking shape. I stared at the frying eggs for a moment and then sprinkled them with salt as seasoning. Finally, I took a bowl and transferred the contents of the pan into it to cool. I got the bread that I had been storing at room temperature and got some grape jam and milk from the fridge.

I filled my stomach with such simple fare and summoned my holographic clock into my field of view. It was almost time to start heading there.

I left my house and locked the door with my key. Kaseun’s mansion stood in an area of Serenia where only the mansions of the nobility had been built.

There were no guilds or markets, so it was a peculiarly quiet place in the mornings, so much different from the rest of Serenia. Bare branches trembled in the wind, their leaves yet to sprout after the harshness of winter. As I walked along those secluded streets, I felt a strange presence behind me, a weird energy that caused me to tense up.

“Huh?”

A man hastily walked by me, his face stricken with terror, and obviously too fearful to look behind him. And there she was: With a cigarette hanging from her mouth like a lollipop, the beauty elegantly stretched out her legs. She was wearing a woolly white turtleneck, a short skirt, and black stockings – bluntly put, she turned heads. She walked along while staring at me. She was truly a beautiful woman, and she possessed all the assets and confidence of maturity.

“Pretty…” I muttered.

It was the first time in this world that I had truly come to admire a figure.

Her long ears pricked up above her head, and she turned her head toward me as if she had somehow heard my softly spoken words.

When our eyes met, I could only give up to her presence as I confusedly shut my mouth.

Ears above her head!?

It turned out that she was not human, as a tail also flicked about behind her. It was banded with black stripes, and it was quite long and as thick as a thick rope.

Still, her ears and her tail did nothing to sully her gorgeousness. The words that I had inadvertently spoken had seemed to spark her interest, but that selfsame interest in me swiftly dissipated, as if her curiosity had run out of steam.

“What is it, kid?”

I think that I was a bit disappointed, then.

“Oh, yeah,” she said as her golden eyes and their black pupils stared down at me in fascination as if they were coolly observing me. I saw her pair of fangs as she smiled ever so slightly. They looked sharp enough to be used as weapons, not the teeth of a human at all. As if she had uttered some nasty joke, she elegantly removed the cigarette from her mouth and blew smoke. Then she lightly walked to me and crouched down before me. I felt an unusual energy flow from her, and I felt as if I was standing stark-naked in front of a hungry predator. I almost took a step back, without realizing it.

“Hey, kid… Am I really pretty?”

“Uh… Yes, you’re pretty.”

“Huh, really now? And I am I scary?”

“You seem dangerous, but I’m not scared yet.”

She stretched her eyes wide open and cocked her head to the side, a little surprised by what I had said. Her tail flicked a few times as it rose slightly, a sign of her amusement, I guessed

“Most children are scared of me, so your attitude is so fresh. How old are you?”

“I’m eleven.”

“Oh my god. I said you’re cute, but….”

She reached out and kissed me on my cheek. I almost gave a little yelp, and she smiled as she looked into my confused face.

“That was for telling me that I’m pretty.”

I blushed as I felt the soft touch of her fingers on my cheek. There came a faint scent from her body, and while she was smoking, it was definitely not the same as the smell of Earth cigarettes. It could be a type of medicinal herb, as it smelled dank and sweet.

“Who-hu-hu. Cute baby! See you again, then.”

She stood up and casually waved at me. She then promptly walked away, nibbling on the cigarette that she smoked.

I had been completely blank for a while and then touched my cheek with a grin.

Perhaps today is a day of great luck, great luck indeed.

I felt sorry that I wouldn’t see her again that day, but my regret unexpectedly disappeared, for not long after she had left me, we met again.

I entered Kaseun’s mansion and headed to the training grounds, as I always did. I tilted my head when I saw others there, for it was usually only Kaseun who awaited me. Today, for some reason, Kain and Riel were there together.

“Oh?” I heard someone say, and then I saw her: The graceful, smoking beauty with dark hair and golden eyes who I had just seen a while ago. She looked slightly surprised when she saw me.

“Come in, Judah, hello!” Kaseun welcomed me. Unexpectedly, Kain and Riel said nothing. They looked at me and just gave slight waves, both of them sweating lightly. They seemed very timid, almost as if their voices had been yanked from them.

What happened here?

My focus was not on the pair of children but on the gorgeous being, I had met a little while ago. It was the first time in this world that I had seen such a beautiful woman. Even in my previous life, I saw celebrities and actresses on computer and television screens. In the flesh, I had only seen their outlines from afar during a university festival.

She was laughing, and I bowed my head toward her.

“Hello, and nice to see you again!” I said with some confidence.

“Yeah, okay kid.”

Kaseun looked surprised by the apparent fact that we knew each other.

“Gentia, do you know Judah?”

“Oh yeah, we met before I came here. A cute and brave kid.”

Had she praised me for my intrepidity? I was confused by her conversation with Kaseun. I haven’t done anything that I considered to be particularly courageous. If I had openly shouted that she was pretty, that might have been an intrepid act, but in our encounter, the courage had been all hers.

I struggled to understand it, and Kaseun found it hard to grasp as well. He looked at her with an expression that wanted to know why she was talking such bullshit.

“Well, this becomes a little easier for me, if you two know each other. Gentia here was a member of the mercenary company that I had led in the past. As you can see from her ears, she’s a bit mutated.”

I nodded. Kaseun possessed a platinum disk, and he had been the first leader of the mercenary group known as -Brothers of the Battle-.

Still, I had no recollection of ever having created an NPC named Gentia. In all likelihood, she was one of the denizens of this world that had been created by some strange law of reality or causality.

So, she had been a member of the company that Kaseun had led. I learned that she was more talented than most in hunting and reconnaissance. She had continued to work as a mercenary after retiring from the -Brothers of the Battle-, but had then contacted her former commander, Kaseun, and left her duties as a mercenary for a time to come and take a break in Serenia.

“Gentia will teach the three of you the basics of hunting and traveling in the wilds. Because the southern forest is dangerous, the hunt will take place in the eastern forest. That is why I called her here.”

“But grandpa, can’t you teach me?” Kain asked carefully after hearing what Kaseun had said. The boy seemed to be wary of Gentia.

“Hmm, your question is okay, but I’m running out of time here. Besides, all I can teach you is how to train your body, I’m really not so good at using my brain. So, Gentia here will teach you such stuff far better than I would ever be able.”

“No,” interrupted Gentia. As she regarded Kaseun’s perplexed gaze, she smiled and looked down at me.

“I have decided,” she said.

“What?” came Kaseun’s gruff demand.

“The other kids, they just aren’t interested. So, commander, either teach them yourself or let them do it themselves.”

Gentia stepped up lightly and came to stand next to me. Kaseun just shook his head and sighed.

“What do you mean, Gentia? Have I not asked you to train all three of my charges?”

“You did, but commander, I must be confused. Did you order me, or ask me? Don’t I have a choice?”

“You do.”

“Good! And if it’s all too hard to understand, I’ll show you.”

She swiftly stepped in the direction of Riel and Kain. Riel cried out in fright as she hid behind Kain, and while he was not trembling as much as Riel, he had stiffened and clenched his teeth. Her appearance surely had a powerfully frightening effect on the children.

“Wait now, and hold onto this,” Gentia said as she entrusted me with the long cigarette that she had been smoking. I nodded as I took it from her fingers.

And then, Gentia began to undress. She slowly removed her stockings, and once they were off, she promptly slid down her skirt and pulled off her turtleneck. She stood there, completely naked, and she looked at us unashamed. I felt like a fool when I started to blush, staring at her sensuous form. As I stared, I saw hair starting to sprout out all over her skin, and her body changed so swiftly, and in the blink of an eye, she had turned into a beast. There she was: Gentia, the black tiger, her pelt shimmering in the sun as that great tail twitched behind her.

She growled, and it was an eerie sound so deep that it echoed into the streets, like a piece of wood being slowly sawed in half.

“Wow,” was all that I could say. Unlike me, who had admired the entire spectacle, Kain had entered a state of utter vigilance while Riel had paused, opened her mouth, and screamed in terror. Gentia turned her feline gaze from the fearful Kain and Riel onto me. Those piercing golden eyes so fiercely glared at me, but I kept a cool head, knowing that she would not hurt me.

I knew that if she had such a close relationship with Kaseun, she could be trusted to do no harm. As I watched her return to her bipedal form, I could only shake my head in wonderment. In response, Gentia paused and looked down at me with a happy face.

“You’re cute,” was all she said, and for me, it was a very satisfactory statement. She hadn’t put any special effort in her words, but in her eyes, I could see that she wanted to hug me, and probably would have, were it not for the presence of Kaseun.

“I like this little kid more and more,” she added, and then shrugged as she heard Kaseun clearing his throat. She started to dress.

“You saw it, commander?”

Kaseun did not answer her.

“They are terrified of me. I’m not here to volunteer, commander, I came here because you once led our group. I approached all three of them tentatively, to clear the air and establish their boundaries, so it’s all okay,” Gentia said and laughed brightly. “I don’t like their fear, it doesn’t suit my temper at all. Even if I say I like children in principle, that doesn’t mean I want to work with them, and if they view me with such terrified faces, why must I be close to them? I’m right, aren’t I?”

Gentia’s head slightly swiveled as she shifted her gaze to me. She reached out and stroked my hair, and I felt so cute at that moment that I surely almost died.

“In such respects, this kid passed. He wasn’t afraid at all, and even said that I was pretty!”

Kaseun frowned. I understood why she had shown her true form, and it was natural that Kain and Riel had been fearful of her. I doubted whether the children had even been ready to train under someone with Gentia’s level and type of skills. It was better if she had me as her single pupil. Besides, on hunting expeditions, it was difficult and annoying to teach many people at once. Kaseun had tried to change her mind, but she had just stuck out her tongue at him.

He finally gave up.

“Tcha, yes then. Do whatever you want, Gentia.”

“Certainly, commander,” Gentia said with a smile as she toked on her cigarette.

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